Visual phenomenology in schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder: an exploratory study.
BJPsych open July 25, 2022 Deborah Wearne, Jeremiah Ayalde, Guy Curtis et al. 10 citations
Visual hallucinations in people with PTSD can be indistinguishable from those in schizophrenia. A study comparing three groups who hear voices—schizophrenia without trauma history (19 participants), PTSD with dissociation (17 participants), and comorbid schizophrenia and PTSD (20 participants)—found remarkable similarity in visual experiences, including rates of complex visual hallucinations, across all groups. No significant differences emerged in the severity or components of distress surrounding these experiences. Dissociation predicted visual hallucination severity only for the comorbid group, not for PTSD or schizophrenia alone. Multimodal hallucinations were frequent in both schizophrenia and PTSD. The authors suggest a model for visual hallucinations in PTSD following two separate neurobiological pathways based on distinct trauma responses.